Letter: Uncertainty best managed with caution

The editorial suggested "damning information" showed Yucca Mountain "unsuitable." We have learned some initial assumptions, made before site-specific studies, were incorrect. But these facts remain: Relatively little water will contact barriers (water does NOT rise from the water table into the repository). Materials selected for barriers are quite immune to anticipated environments. And because of uncertainties, we model water-seepage conservatively, and emplace an additional barrier to protect against that uncertainty. Uncertainty is managed by erring on the side of caution and safety.

The safety argument for placing material in a desert mountain is helped by the Sun's disclosure that portions of a mummy's skin remained preserved in a Nevada cave for 9,400 years (Feb. 16, 1998, "Scientists reveal more about Spirit Cave mummy"). This helps illustrate the idea that very resistant material in an engineered cave in a desert mountain may last tens of thousands of years.

ABRAHAM VAN LUIK

Senior policy advisor, U.S. Department of Energy, Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project

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